Chanticleer Book Reviews

Author: chanti

The 2025 Humor and Satire Hall of Fame

Humor and Satire Awards!

The Humor and Satire Awards are here to bring you a laugh!

***No Joke! The Humor and Satire deadline is October 31st!***

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring satire, humor, political ideology, parody, fantasy, and allegory or fable. The Deadline for the 2025 Humor and Satire Book Awards is the end of October.

Looking to learn more about the Humor and Satire Awards? Click here!

Let’s take a look at the Winners of the Humor and Satire Award!

The Man Who Saw Seconds
By Alexander Boldizar

Our newest Humor and Satire Grand Prize Winners review is still upcoming. In the meantime, here is what some Goodreads readers have been saying:

“The Man Who Saw Seconds is a tightly-wound but thoughtful thriller written with verve and a commitment to thoroughly explore its intriguing notion. The protagonist, Preble Jefferson, can see five seconds into the future. Boldizar doesn’t just use this as a plot device, he explores the idea and examines the many ways this affects the character and his relationship to the world. While much of the book is awash in edge-of-your-seat energy, we also get a philosophical discussion of the ramifications of this quirky idea. A great read with a truly unique feel.” -E.R.

“A split-second decision can change a life, but you have never experienced it snowball the way you do in Seconds, a fast-paced speculative novel by Alexander Boldizar. A man who can see seconds into the future has an incident with police that forces him to use his powers to save himself. Once exposed, he becomes public enemy number one and the government kidnaps and threatens his family. Bad idea to escalate a conflict with man who has studied martial arts and chess, with the ability to literally dodge bullets. No novel in recent memory answers the question as convincingly: “Will I risk destroying the world to save the people I love?” Boldizar raises stakes to world-tipping proportions and I literally lost sleep turning pages to discover what happens next. Seconds is a science fiction tour de force.” -Martin

“There is only one remarkable thing about Alexander Boldizar’s latest book—everything! From the very first scene to the closing page, the novel is utterly captivating. It brims with an astonishing array of universal themes, presented in such an unexpected sequence that it transcends any attempt at genre categorization. This, paradoxically, becomes one of its greatest strengths.” -Ivan

Buy it here!

Quantum Consequence
By Mike Murphey

Quantum Consequences, the fifth book in the Physics, Lust, and Greed Series by Mike Murphy, mixes conflicts from the past, present, and future as a group of time travelers clash over the fate of multiple worlds.

Marta and Marshall have to protect Baptiste, a child living under the rule of his mother’s abusive boyfriend, Ignace Aguillard. When their friend Cecil is murdered, Baptiste inherits his money and stake in a secret governmental facility beneath the Arizona desert, the Historical Research Initiative Complex. To keep that money out of Aguillard’s hands and confirm whether Aguillard truly killed Cecil, Marta and Marshall take Baptiste to the HRI, revealing its true nature as the hub of interdimensional time travel.

Meanwhile, a team of assassins and former HRI personnel, Gillis, Lexi, and Elvin, are instructed by a future version of Lexi to kill John Dexter– Lexi’s bitter ex and future higher-up in the dystopian Christian Fundamentalist States of America. They break into the HRI, now seemingly abandoned, to figure out whether they should take the job.

Read More Here!

Delphic Oracle, USA
By Steven Mayfield

The Coen Brothers meet Garrison Keillor in Steven Mayfield’s quirky, offbeat, and often hilarious Delphic Oracle, U.S.A.

One June afternoon in 1925, seventeen-year-old Maggie Westinghouse, out walking alone as was her custom, comes upon a stranger in a railroad switch-house asleep on a pile of gunnysacks. Maggie, who has always stood a little apart from the town, has recently begun to experience visions that come upon her “in a leisurely way,” ending in a swoon and a restless sleep filled with exotic talk of which she later has no memory. No one knows what to make of it, but they soon will. After this afternoon’s chance encounter with July Pennybaker, a charming grifter on the lam, her world will never be the same. Neither will the town of Miagrammesto Station.

Eighty-nine years later, in the days leading up to and following the July 4th weekend, domestic dramas are playing out across Delphic Oracle, Nebraska (nee Miagrammesto Station).

Read more here!

Certified
By Roger Wilson-Crane

Certified by Roger Wilson-Crane is a multi-award-winning comedy-drama, following one man down three sharp turns in his life trajectory.

Based on real-life events, Certified shows the narrator’s birth, marriage, and death, three of the most significant milestones in human life. The book is divided into three sections.

“One Unexpected Birth” explores his flawed string of relationships until he meets Dawn, the love of his life. However, a woman from the past makes a comeback, threatening to shatter his newly found happiness.

“One Hapless Wedding” careens about his well-planned wedding in Puglia, Italy, which is trampled by Justin Timberlake who wants the same venue. “One Bizarre Death”, on the other hand, follows the loss of the narrator’s loved one and the pain and confusion that surrounds an unexpected death. Certified is full of humor, heart, and unexpected gems that one might find in a trunk of well-lived memories.

Read more here!

Arnold Falls
By Charlie Suisman

Charlie Suisman’s debut novel is a wonderful escape to a small fictional community in upstate New York. Here a melting pot of quirky residents brings Arnold Falls to life, a town with a unique history and charming inhabitants whose lives are intimately intertwined.

Settled in 1803 by the unscrupulous Hezekiah Hesper, the town for unknown reasons was named after Benedict Arnold. Adding to the oddities, the closest waterfall is twenty miles away. The area is known for sudden bursts of crab apple-size hail pelting the landscape without any scientific explanation. Hence the incentive for “Hail Pail Day,” a neighborly tradition surrounding the distribution of galvanized bucket head-coverings.

Suisman engagingly presents Jeebie Walker as the story’s primary narrator. A gay man in his early 40s, he moved north of the city in the hopes of a quieter life with his partner, Miles. Though things didn’t work out, Jeebie has settled into his fixer-upper, Queen Anne-style abode, and now seems a positive fixture in this hamlet.

Read more here!

Now that you’re set on your next reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Humor and Satire Winners is to submit today!

Those who submit and advance will have the chance to win the Overall Grand Prize of the CIBAs and $1000!

Enter the CIBAs Today!

Now is your chance to touch the hearts of readers everywhere. Your Humor or Satire story deserves to be discovered, and you can submit to the 2025 Humor and Satire Awards by the end of the month. Don’t miss this chance to give your book the recognition it deserves.

The Humor and Satire Awards is your chance to shine!

October 17, 2025
The 2024 Somerset First Place Roundup for Literary & Contemporary Fiction

The Somerset Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Contemporary and Literary Fiction. The Grand Prize Winner, Reenita Malhotra Hora’s book, Vermilion Harvest: Playtime at the Bagh, will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Somerset contest page year ’round!

The best part about being a Chanticleer Int’l Book Award Winner is the love and attention you get all year ‘round!

The 2024 Somerset Winners were announced at the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference in April, and you can see the official winners post here!

Join us in celebrating the 2024 First Place Somerset Winners!

Robert Gwaltney – Sing Down the Moon

This book is still not yet released, but has a release date for Summer 2026. We are very excited to see it come out!

Ann Bancroft – Almost Family

Liz Millanova has stage four cancer, a grown daughter who doesn’t speak to her, and obsessive memories of a relationship that tore apart her marriage. She thinks of herself as someone who’d rather die than sit through a support group, but now that she actually is going to die, she figures she might as well give it a go.

Mercy’s Thriving Survivors is a hospital-sponsored group held in a presumably less depressing location: a Nordstrom’s employee training lounge. There, Liz hits it off with two other patients, and the three unlikely friends decide to ditch the group and meet on their own. They call themselves the Oakland Mets, and their goal is to enjoy life while they can. Together, Dave, a gay Vietnam vet, Rhonda, a devout, nice woman who’s hiding a family secret and finds peace in a gospel choir, and snarky Liz plan outings to hear jazz, enjoy nature, and tour Alcatraz. In the odd intimacy they form, Liz learns to open up and get close, acknowledge and let go of the dysfunction in her marriage, and repair her relationship with her daughter. They joined forces to have a good time—but what they wind up doing is helping one another come to grips with terminal cancer and resolve the unfinished business in their lives.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Christina Boyd – The Woman in The Painting

This work is also a manuscript, and we are very excited to see it come out eventually! Click above to see Boyd’s website and her extraordinary work.

Kay Smith-Blum – Tangles

Also a 2024 Hemingway First Place Winner!

Oppenheimer was just the beginning.

When a harpooned whale offers proof the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is endangering all life in the Columbia River Basin, Luke Hinson, a brash young scientist, seizes the chance to avenge his father’s death but a thyroid cancer diagnosis derails Luke’s research. Between treatments, he dives back in, making enemies at every turn. On an overnight trek, Luke discovers evidence that Mary, his former neighbor, embarked on the same treacherous trail, and her disappearance, a decade prior, may be tied to Hanford’s harmful practices mired in government-mandated secrecy.

A love story wrapped in a mystery, this stunning Cold War home-front tale reveals the devastating costs of the birth of the nuclear age, and celebrates the quiet courage of wronged women, the fierce determination of fatherless sons, and the limitless power of the individual.

Tangles is a genre-defying must-read for our time.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Anthony Horton – Unpaved

Each passing mile triggers vivid flashbacks to a transformative summer spent with his beloved grandfather, offering the hope of a new beginning amid the turmoil of his professional life. The chaotic web of accusations and misconduct surrounding his former boss adds an unexpected layer of complexity to his pilgrimage. The weight of his past and present converge as Russell travels onward, haunted by memories and uncertain of the revelations that await him at the cabin.

With the fate of his professional life hanging in the balance, Unpaved leads to a convergence of personal and corporate truths.

From Chanticleer:

Unpaved by Anthony Horton is a pensive novel of how returning to one’s roots can reveal hints on how to move forward after a lifetime of grief.

Russell Nowak-McCreary is a man whose life has been proudly shaped by formidable women. His mother, Judith, was a prominent cardiac surgeon at the reputable St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. His wife, Anna, thrived as a student of Judith’s and has risen to the top of Boston’s best medical campus. And Russell’s work partner Sarah Westroes joined his company, Datatel, as its CEO with a relentless drive to expand its footprint in the tech industry. His childhood was spent without a father figure, only excepting the fond memories of a single summer at his grandfather’s cabin in the Canadian wilderness.

As he returns to the remote cabin of his youth to set his mother’s affairs in order, Russell takes this time alone to finally process all that he lost.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Erika Shepard – Abomination Child

Meet the Fosters. Parents from disparate backgrounds, an eight-year-old boy and his thirteen-year-old sister, all living a suffocating version of the American dream in 1958 Missouri.

An innocent grade school Halloween party—and one small betrayal—lead to an act of sudden violence that stuns them all, and in an instant their facade of normalcy cracks, sending each of them down a separate, winding path to self-discovery.

Abomination Child follows the story of that family through the fog of anger, lost innocence, and disillusionment. It is the story of Brian, an effeminate boy who believes with all his heart he is a girl; his rebellious tomboy sister Liz who yearns only to escape; their diligent, studious mother Barbara who longs for the peace and tranquility of a normal family life, and their father John, angry and wounded by war, now mired in new-found religious zeal.

Each must find their own truth in the shifting world of the Sixties and Seventies—if they can.

From Chanticleer:

Abomination Child is a coming-of-age novel, a piece of historical fiction, and a lesson to us all. Erika Shepard tells the story of Brianna, a young girl growing up in Missouri during the 1960s, struggling to be accepted.

Within her community, Brianna is seen on the outside as a boy, and everyone knows her as Brian. She confides in her older sister Liz, who supports her and helps her face a world that doesn’t understand. Spanning many years, Abomination Child follows Brianna’s journey of survival, hoping that one day she’ll be able to live freely as herself.

Brianna’s – known then as Brian – troubles start after his father learns that he dressed in girl’s clothes at a school Halloween dance. Deeply conservative and religious, Brian’s father hits him for what he believes is an abominable perversion caused by the Devil. For Brian, it’s as simple as knowing he is really a girl, a girl named Brianna.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Leslie DeBrock – The Frog-Eyed Gospel

In a steamy East Texas town, surrounded by oilfield grit and 1960s racial tension, devout eighteen-year-old Peter Loucas faces the prospect of the Viet Nam draft. The sudden death of his father and then his witness of a lynching, thrust him headlong into a fraught adulthood. A summer job in the oilfield leads to a taboo connection with Swat, a black veteran of the Korean War. While his community tries to keep him on track, Pete finds a confidant in Gwynn, a Berkely student temporarily stranded in Texas. The tug-of-war between Pete’s beliefs and the newly discovered complexity around morality and integrity force Pete into a dangerous spiritual reckoning.

This debut novel, in which landscape is a character in its own right, weaves together the pain, the joy and the unexpected twists in creating a life that can be lived with.

From Chanticleer:

In his debut novel The Frog-Eyed Gospel: A Texas Exodus, Leslie DeBrock weaves together the inspiring yet complex stories of a diverse cast of characters, all making their way through a tense Texas summer in 1965.

Peter Loucas is the boy at the center of this story, a senior in high school bent on going to college and becoming the newest preacher in the Bible belt. His faith in God is passionate and strong — until his father is killed in an oilfield accident. In his grief, Pete finds himself suddenly questioning the teachings to which he had given himself blindly for years.

The setting of the story couldn’t be more poised for conflict: Sabine Gap, a small town with religious intimidation and racism everywhere you look. The Vietnam war rages and veterans flock home traumatized. Supporters and protestors clash nationwide. The residents of Tin Cup —Sabine Gap, a small town replete with religious and racial rigidity. While protests roil the nation, veterans return, some walking; some not.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2024 Somerset First Place Winners!

Your book can join the Tiers of Achievement, but only if you submit to the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards!

Got a great Fiction Book? The 2025 Somerset Book Awards are open through the end of October!

Submit to the Somerset Awards Today!

October 15, 2025
The 2024 Humor and Satire First Place Roundup

The Humor and Satire Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Humorous, Satirical and Allegorical Fiction. The Grand Prize Winner, Alexander Boldizar’s book, The Man Who Saw Seconds, will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article to come, as well as be featured on the Humor and Satire contest page year ’round!

The best part about being a Chanticleer Int’l Book Award Winner is the love and attention you get all year!

The 2024 Humor and Satire Winners were announced at the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference in April, and you can see the official winners post here!

Join us in celebrating the 2024 First Place Humor and Satire Winners!

Bill Burkland – The Misconceived Conception of a Baby Named Jesus

On a warm Galilean night, Mary and Joseph get to know each other (in the biblical sense) in a secluded garden in Nazareth. Nine months later, Mary’s pious mother, seeing that her young, unwed daughter is pregnant, enlists the help of a pompous high priest to characterize the pregnancy as divine, of God’s seed. When Mary refuses to go along with her mother’s scheme, she and Joseph enter a battle with her parents over every aspect of the birth and the fate of their baby.

As word of a miraculous virgin birth spreads through Bethlehem, factions form, and allegiances shift among unscrupulous shepherds, dubious Wise Men, an elderly innkeeper, an earnest but malodorous peasant and an aging cat with a penchant for prophecy-all trying to answer the crucial question: Is the baby named Jesus truly the Son of God or merely a mortal born of earthly parents?

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Julie L. Brown – No One Will Save Us

Her destiny was certain. Until it wasn’t.

Exploring her beloved forest, young Princess Chibuike “Chi” encounters a man unlike any she has seen. His skin is as pale as the moon that watches over the Queendom of Kana, a land where women rule fiercely and freely.

Ten dry seasons later, in 1619, Chi, now a seasoned warrior in the Kanaian army, and preparing for her own future as queen, faces a mystery that threatens the existence of Kana. The once-peaceful queendom is upended when nearby villagers disappear en masse, including their ruling families—and one of Chi’s closest friends. Chi vows to find her missing landspeople and bring them home, no matter where they are. She and the women warriors travel across the ocean to Jamestown, Virginia to face down the pale men who have built a trade in human beings. To change the course of history for her people and herself requires Chi to discover a new kind of bravery and her true destiny.

Julie L. Brown’s No One Will Save Us is a sweeping novel of alternative history that explores what it means to be free and the resilience it takes to keep it.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Dan Kopcow – Madcap Seranade

Eli, a precocious 16-year-old social misfit living on Long Island in August 1979, cons his way into a professional boys’ choir’s Italian and Vatican tour so he can discover his missing father’s legacy.

But when he meets his dream girl, Jane, and finds himself connected to an intricate murder plot involving a legendary drug, he must decide if singing for the Pope is worth losing his family and first love.

Jane, a rebellious 16-year-old American girl, is desperate to get back into favor with her school friends after accidentally calling a narc on them. When she is sent to a Roman convent for smuggling erotic novels, she realizes she must grow up fast if she’s going to escape from the nuns, solve her family’s mystery involving a mythical drug, keep clear of the authorities, and declare her love for Eli.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Marco Ocram – The Awful Truth About The Name of The Rose

“IT IS STAN,” screamed the unhinged monk. “STAN HAS COME AMONGST US!”
“Stan?” cried the abbot and I in bewilderment. “Who is Stan?”

I realized my mistake, and retyped the line.

“IT IS SATAN,” screamed the unhinged monk. “SATAN HAS COME AMONST US!”

Mega-selling author, Marco Ocram, is on the edge of a nervous breakdown, and needs complete rest.

Police Chief Como Galahad—Marco’s main character—needs a volunteer to go under-cover at the Abbey, a remote celebrity retreat run as a medieval monastery, where something fishy is afoot.

There’s only one solution—Marco books into the Abbey for a detox, just a few days before a hundred A-listers fly in for a grand gala dinner.

Could anything go wrong? Could Marco write a labyrinth of astounding twists to leave all the world’s top celebrities moments from an awful death? Will you be amazed by the ending? You bet!

Fast, funny, and utterly different. Welcome to the weird world of The Awful Truth.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2024 Humor and Satire First Place Winners!

Your book can join the Tiers of Achievement, but only if you submit to the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards!

Got a great Fiction Book? The 2025 Humor and Satire Book Awards are open through the end of October!

Submit to the Humor and Satire Awards Today!

October 15, 2025
Inês: The Queens of Portugal Trilogy by Catherine Mathis – Historical Fiction, Romance, Courtly Intrigue

Inspired by a true story, Catherine Mathis’s incredible novel, Inês: The Queens of Portugal Trilogy, follows the forbidden love of Ines de Castro and Infante Pedro, and their indelible connection to one another even after a most tragic death.

Alfonso, the rightful heir to the Portuguese throne in Chao da Feira Palace in Santarem, nearly loses his crown to his stepbrother. Goncalves, a courtier, rescues the situation, earning him the king’s undying loyalty. Alfonso puts his son Pedro under Goncalve’s care to learn the moral code and values of the royal court. As the heir to the Portuguese throne and an only child, his father arranges a royal union for him with Infanta Constanza, a Castilian noblewoman.

Love, however, does not conform to alliances or compromise. The arrival of 15-year-old Ines de Castro of Castile in 1339, a lady-in-waiting to Infanta Constanza, creates a precarious rift between a father and his son. Pedro falls madly in love with Ines despite being already married to Constanza. He begins an affair that displeases the king and fuels palace gossip among the nobles. Fearing for the independence of his nation and possible revolts, King Alfonso is forced to take drastic measures that fan power struggles, betrayal, dishonor, and even death.

Catherine Mathis takes a blazingly smart and deep dive into an era of history that still resonates today.

With rich, robust, and evenly matched characters, she offers a historically accurate plot that is voyeuristic in all the right ways. Being fictionalized, in part, there is a lot to relish in the author’s creative craft, such as the introduction of minor characters who propel the plot into a sweeping conclusion. Plunging readers into the royal heart of a love story that has shaped history, Inês: The Queens of Portugal Trilogy is sublimely sensual with a captivating sense of charm.

Although it has a well-trodden conflict alongside it, this romance between a royal heir and a lady-in-waiting will gratify readers. Mathis excels through an abundance of tense and evocative dialogue, balancing it with the right amount of lively banter. The result is a tour de force that is surefooted and rich in human emotion.

The book’s details are brilliant and perceptible, whether they are used to describe the culture, sounds, attitudes, or smells of 14th-century Portugal.

The text’s most imperative scenes, within the palace walls, exude the intrigues of an institution that influences every sphere of society.

Inês: The Queens of Portugal Trilogy is a compact tale of love, loss, vengeance, and justice, delivering a swift kick to the heart. Exquisitely researched and told at a rapid pace, Mathis’s debut offering is a sweep of grace and virtuosity in its genre.

Inês: The Queens of Portugal Trilogy by Catherine Mathis won First Place in the 2019 CIBA Chaucer Awards for Pre-1750s Historical Fiction.

October 15, 2025
The 2025 Somerset Spotlight for Literary & Contemporary Fiction
Celebrating Literary Excellence

The Somerset Awards are looking for the best in Contemporary Novels

Literary and contemporary fiction has the power to illuminate the depths of human experience, transforming personal stories into universal truths that resonate across cultures and generations. The finest works in this genre challenge, inspire, and offer profound insights into what it means to be human. The Somerset Awards for Literary and Contemporary Fiction celebrate these exceptional voices, recognizing authors who craft narratives that bridge the personal and political, the intimate and the historical, creating literature that both reflects our world and shapes our understanding of it.

Celebrating Our Overall Grand Prize Winner!

We’re thrilled to celebrate our 2024 Somerset Division Grand Prize Winner, Reenita Malhotra Hora for her powerful novel Vermilion Harvest: Playtime at the Bagh. But this recognition reaches even higher as Hora’s remarkable work also claimed our Overall Grand Prize, earning her the prestigious $1000 cash prize in addition to a Chanticleer Editorial Review and Author Interview. This extraordinary honor reflects the exceptional quality of her storytelling and the universal resonance of her narrative.

Set against the politically charged backdrop of 1919 Amritsar, India, Vermilion Harvest weaves a compelling love story between Aruna, an Anglo-Indian Hindi schoolteacher, and Ayaz, a passionate Muslim law student whose political activism threatens their forbidden romance. As military tensions escalate toward the tragic Jallianwala Bagh massacre of April 13th, 1919, Aruna must navigate not only the complexities of cross-cultural love but also the desperate urgency of warning her beloved about Colonel Dyer’s impending attack.

What makes Hora’s work exceptional is her ability to serve as a cultural bridge, capturing the nuanced position of her protagonist who exists between Indian and Anglo communities while maintaining hope even as circumstances darken. Our judges praised the author’s professional skill and eloquent narrative voice, noting how she masterfully balances historical depth with intimate romance. The novel succeeds in making unfamiliar historical events accessible while preserving their emotional weight, creating what one judge described as “a believable and compelling story” that wraps “love, hate, denial, and betrayal inside a single love story capturing today’s hope with yesterday’s despair.”

See our Review of Vermilion Harvest Here

The Somerset Awards honor the full spectrum of literary and contemporary fiction, celebrating works that push boundaries and explore the human condition:
- Contemporary Themes features stories that grapple with modern life’s complexities, from urban alienation to digital-age relationships, capturing the zeitgeist of our current moment.
- Literary showcases works distinguished by exceptional prose, complex character development, and thematic depth that elevate fiction to art.
- Women’s Fiction & Family Themes explores the intricate dynamics of family relationships, women’s experiences, and generational stories that resonate across demographics.
- Social/Psychological Themes delves into the human psyche and societal issues, examining how external forces shape internal landscapes and vice versa.
- Magic Realism blends fantastical elements with realistic narratives, creating stories where the extraordinary illuminates everyday truths. Think Gabriel García Márquez or Isabel Allende.
- Adventure/Suspense and Action/Adventure prove that literary fiction can be thrilling, combining sophisticated storytelling with pulse-pounding plots.
- Connections celebrates stories about human relationships, community bonds, and the threads that tie us together across differences and distances.
Roses in December
By Mark A. Gibson

A Series First Place Winner!

Roses in December is the epic conclusion to Mark A. Gibson’s compelling two-part family saga, Hamilton Place. Now focusing on the family’s next generation, James Hamilton Jr.—Jimmy—follows in the footsteps of the father he never met, a Vietnam War hero who died in battle, and ultimately finds his own path in life.

Pressured by a conning mother-in-law only out for monetary gain, the elder Jimmy’s widow, Becca, is pushed to marry Mack Lee, her deceased husband’s older brother who proves to be a cheating and abusive husband. Trapped in this loveless marriage, Becca hopes that attending church will remove her son from the toxic influence of her new husband and set him on the right path to a good life. But it’s the discovery of young Jimmy’s superior photographic memory that opens the door to a brighter future, and he sets a course to an outstanding medical career, coupled with military service in Afghanistan.

Gibson delivers the recent past with a great sense of immediacy, showing events that ripple into our contemporary world using pop references that are relevant in today’s world.

Read More Here

When Walls Talk
By Geralyn Hesslau Magrady

Toni has the chance to start her own business in the building of her family’s old bakery. But history waits within those walls. In Geralyn Hesslau Magrady’s novella, When Walls Talk, Toni and her father uncover secrets they could never have expected.

The Russo Bakery, with its 1920s architecture had been the family business since the four Russo brothers first opened its doors. Decades later, Toni and her widowed father plan a complete redesign of what their ancestors made to fulfill her dream of owning a bookstore. As the walls fall around the Russo family business, a long-hidden truth brings about profound personal changes for Toni.

Toni takes this giant leap into the unknown, unsure if she’s even prepared to own a business. But the bookstore is the key to her hope for a better future, her only path to escaping a past tragedy.

Read More Here

Not That Kind of Call Girl
By Nova Garcia

A Somerset First Place Winner!

In Nova Garcia’s novel, Not That Kind of Call Girl, Julia Navarro-Nilsson balances a lot heavy responsibilities on her plate. She’s the supervisor of the Cascade City Chronicle call center, has just had her first child, and is dead set on saving her newest employee from a lifetime of abuse.

As a Mexican-American, Julia knows first-hand how difficult life can be for a minority woman, so when Carmen Cooper shows up for a job interview, Julia is determined to hire the young college student even though her story and answers to Julia’s question are sketchy. This reluctance to share her personal information intrigues Julia, but Carmen’s life turns out to be much more challenging than Julia would have ever dreamed.

Sussing out the truth behind the timid young woman’s clearly fictional story, Julia turns detective with the help of her reporter friend, Jerry. The two are dogged in their search and discover a secret so deep that it will rock Hollywood — that is, if she can juggle her new baby, her neglected husband, her sexually harassing boss, and an unending visit from her critical mother.

Read More Here

The Faraway Mountains
By Radu Guiasu

The Faraway Mountains by Radu Guiaşu is a fascinating blend of fiction and autobiography that brings to light the restrictive nature of the Communist Era in Romania and throughout the Eastern European Bloc. Experienced through the eyes of a group of friends, their persistence to find their friend perfectly illustrates the importance of human connection, even within the cold confines of a communist country.

Guiaşu begins his story as a chronicle of the entwined lives of childhood friends Victor, Dan, and Alex—who embark on a quest to find their lost comrade, Gabriel. Along their journey, they debate the important issues of their day.

Their discussions reveal the intricacies of daily life from the broad, to the particular. Topics like the oppressive regime in the country, the egregious ineptitude of some high-ranking officials, the deterioration of living conditions, and the recent and shameful destruction of numerous architectural gems are discussed right alongside the possibility of the national football championship game being another sham, the rising cost of foreign blue jeans on the black market, and the record heat wave they left behind in the capital.

This work pays homage to those exceptional individuals who, in spite of the harsh conditions their government forced on them, retained their moral rectitude, bravery, and irreverent sense of humor. It is also a condemnation of everyone who worked in tandem with these oppressive systems.

Read More Here

Confluence
By Mary Elizabeth Gillilan

In Confluence by Mary Elizabeth Gillilan, Maya has lived much of her life where she feels safe—at home with her Buddhist mother in the small town of La Conner, Washington. But a surprise discovery about Maya’s past pushes her to explore a wholly unfamiliar corner of the world.

Living with cerebral palsy, and a self-professed homebody, Maya is the queen of getting out of plans. But at sixty-five, two years after her mother passed, Maya finds a suitcase with her grandmother’s diary, several photos, and a letter written by her mother hidden inside.

In the letter, Maya learns she was born in a place called Sangam and her father could still be living there. The letter names a nun who helped deliver Maya and founded a hospital in that area, Yeshe Maya. Hesitant to leave her comfort zone, Maya waits to write to Yeshe Maya for a year. It takes even longer for Maya to work past all that is holding her back from the call of adventure.

Read More Here

These reviews represent just a glimpse of the literary excellence and contemporary insights waiting to be discovered in today’s finest fiction.

See the Chanticleer Difference for Yourself!

We’re excited about all the exceptional literary and contemporary fiction we receive every year for both the CIBAs and for our Editorial Reviews. Throughout this year’s Somerset Book Awards, we had the pleasure of promoting numerous outstanding novels as they advanced through our competition tiers. The Chanticleer International Book Awards offers an incredible $30,000 in cash, prizes, and promotion across all divisions!

This is the journey from beginning to end for the CIBAs! Every list you make means more promotion for you and your work as each advancement tier is posted right here on our website, on our social media, and also out in our newsletter! Your book deserves to be discovered.

Don’t Let Your Literary Voice Go Unheard!

The literary and contemporary fiction market continues to hunger for authentic voices and compelling narratives that speak to our shared human experience. Whether your work explores contemporary social issues, delves into psychological complexity, bridges cultural divides, or pushes the boundaries of traditional storytelling, the Somerset Awards provide the recognition and promotional platform your literary excellence deserves.

Literary fiction has the unique power to transform readers, offering not just escape but enlightenment, empathy, and understanding. From intimate character studies that reveal universal truths to sweeping narratives that capture historical moments, every skillfully crafted literary work has the potential to become part of the cultural conversation. Don’t let your voice remain unheard—submit to the Somerset Awards today and join the distinguished authors who’ve found their literary community through Chanticleer!

Submit to the Somerset Awards today! Deadline: October 31st

You know you want it…
October 13, 2025
The 2025 Humor and Satire Spotlight
When Wit Meets Wisdom

The Humor & Satire Awards: Books that make us laugh and think

Humor and satire holds up a mirror to society, revealing truths that might be too uncomfortable to face in more serious genres. From clever wordplay that brightens our day to sharp social commentary that challenges our assumptions, these works prove that laughter truly is one of humanity’s most powerful tools for understanding ourselves and our world. The Humor & Satire Awards celebrate authors who master the delicate art of making readers think while they chuckle, crafting stories that entertain, enlighten, and occasionally make us squirm with recognition.

Celebrating Our Grand Prize Winner!

We’re thrilled to celebrate our 2024 Humor & Satire Division Grand Prize Winner, Alexander Boldizar for his thought-provoking novel The Man Who Saw Seconds. This ingenious work follows Preble Jefferson, an ordinary man with an extraordinary gift: he can see exactly five seconds into the future. What begins as a seemingly useful ability becomes a nightmare when Preble dodges a bullet on a New York subway, causing another man to die in his place. Suddenly, government agencies take notice, transforming a simple manhunt into a military operation as they recognize the strategic potential of Preble’s gift.

Boldizar uses this fantastical premise to craft a brilliant satirical commentary on government overreach, surveillance culture, and the way institutions transform individuals into commodities. The novel explores weighty themes about the tension between personal freedom and systemic control, all while maintaining the propulsive energy of a thriller. As Preble fights to protect his family and preserve his humanity, readers are treated to a story that questions the nature of time, free will, and the systems we create to govern ourselves. The result is what the publisher calls “an adrenaline-pumping read that will leave you contemplating love, fear and the abyss.” Boldizar will receive a Chanticleer Editorial Review and be invited to participate in an Author Interview, offering insights into his approach to blending genre elements with satirical wit.

The Humor & Satire Awards celebrate the full spectrum of comedic and satirical literature, honoring works that make us laugh, think, and sometimes do both simultaneously:
- Humor features pure comedy that delights in wordplay, absurd situations, and the lighter side of life, proving that sometimes laughter really is the best medicine.
- Satire takes aim at society’s foibles and institutions with wit as sharp as a scalpel, using humor to expose hypocrisy, challenge authority, and inspire change through clever critique.
- Parody lovingly skewers familiar genres, characters, or cultural phenomena, celebrating what it mocks while offering fresh perspectives on well-worn territory.
- Allegory/Fable uses symbolic storytelling and moral lessons wrapped in entertaining packages, proving that the most profound truths often come disguised as simple tales.
- Political Ideology tackles the absurdities of governance, power, and social structures, using humor to make complex political concepts accessible and memorable.
- Fantasy and Alternative History – Non-SciFi – prove that even imaginary worlds can offer the perfect laboratory for exploring very real human behaviors and social dynamics.
Summer of Haight
By George Petersen

In The Summer of Haight, George Petersen opens a doorway into the hallucinatory dreamscape of 1967 San Francisco, where the counterculture’s bright ideals are shadowed by something far more sinister.

Forget the peace signs and flower crowns. This isn’t a nostalgic romp through Haight-Ashbury. It’s a slow-burning gothic mystery where the air smells of something rotting just beneath the incense, and reality unravels one eerie page at a time.

The Summer of Haight centers on Longfellow, a straight-laced, impeccably dressed British lawyer living in San Francisco. He’s logical, loyal, and just rigid enough to feel like he’s constantly one step out of place in the groovy chaos of 1960s counterculture. His best friend, the brilliant and eccentric scientist Dr. Jonathan St. Amour, seems to be riding high—hosting elite parties, building a private laboratory under his Victorian mansion, and showing off his mysterious new pet cat, Zelda, who wears a custom-cut diamond in the shape of a cat’s eye.

Things start to tilt sideways when Jonathan suddenly asks Longfellow to draft a new will—one that leaves everything to a man named Dr. Asmodeus Youngblood.

Read More Here

Cleave The Sparrow
By Jonathan Katz

Cleave the Sparrow by Jonathan Katz blends political satire, existential philosophy, and absurd humor to immerse readers in a complex, surreal dystopian narrative.

Tom is a reluctant political candidate stuck on the blurred line between truth and power. His mentor, Crick—a controversial figure for his political views—has an ultimate goal in mind that pulls Tom into its wake. Believing in the limitation of human perception and the illusory nature of the world, Crick endeavors to destroy a ‘cosmic projector’ that he supposes fabricates this false reality.

Cleave the Sparrow charts a course where Tom, as Crick’s successor, follows his holotapes to carry out this dream, plunging into political and scientific conspiracy and moral dilemmas—opening an unexplored trail to time travel, quantum mechanics, and existential dread.

Read More Here

Tomorrowville
By David T. Isaak

As Tomorrowville by David Isaak opens, it is in fact yesterday. 2008 to be specific. Toby Simmons, a Gen X programmer/engineer/hacker, is in the midst of something professionally fascinating but personally stupid.

Toby uses a state-of-the-art virtual reality system to surreptitiously peek into the apartment of the woman across the street. But he’s three stories up, and loses track of where his real feet are walking as he’s too busy following his virtual eyeballs, leading him to one of Wile E. Coyote’s famous maneuvers. He discovers that there’s nothing underneath him but air and a three-story drop to the pavement.

But just like that cartoon coyote, Toby comes back from the dead. It only takes a silly prank, a forgotten gin and tonic, and 80 years, as medical science makes great strides in bringing cryogenically frozen bodies back from formerly life-ending spinal destruction. Along with a whopping bill from the U.S. government– nearly five million dollars for all the many, many costs of Toby’s revival.

It’s 2088, and Toby Simmons has unwittingly become Rip Van Winkle. The world has changed while he’s been sleeping– although not, perhaps, nearly as much as it should have.

Read More Here

A Good Day and Other Mostly Humorous Stories and Lists
By Radu Guiasu

Through the thirty-six diverse writing efforts of A Good Day and Other Mostly Humorous Stories and Lists, Radu Guiasu masterfully combines wit, whimsy, satire, and personal contemplation.

These vignettes cover a wide range of topics, styles, and techniques. While they often seem to be typical “slice-of-life” moments, Guiasu clearly has a knack for finding humor in even the most absurd situations.

As a native Romanian now residing and teaching in Canada, Guiasu writes from his own knowledge and experience. He often broaches serious and meaningful topics, such as the world of academia, growing up under a dictatorship, and a love of nature.

The book’s title story, written while the author was a graduate student, follows a central character who cheerfully muses on fellow graduates not pursuing careers connected to their degree. Choosing not to sell out, he furthers his education and teaches high school to troubled students rather than drive a cab. Ultimately, he loses both his job and his girlfriend, thus deciding to celebrate his newfound freedom by writing about it.

Read More Here

These reviews represent just a glimpse of the clever storytelling and sharp insights waiting to be discovered in today’s humor and satirical literature.

See the Chanticleer Difference for Yourself!

We’re excited about all the witty and thought-provoking works we receive every year for both the CIBAs and for our Editorial Reviews. Throughout this year’s Humor & Satire Book Awards, we had the pleasure of promoting numerous entertaining titles as they advanced through our competition tiers. The Chanticleer International Book Awards offers an incredible $30,000 in cash, prizes, and promotion across all divisions!

This is the journey from beginning to end for the CIBAs! Every list you make means more promotion for you and your work as each advancement tier is posted right here on our website, on our social media, and also out in our newsletter! Your book deserves to be discovered.

Don’t Let Your Wit Go Unwitnessed!

The humor and satire market continues to thrive as readers seek both escapist entertainment and intelligent commentary on our increasingly complex world. Whether your work delivers pure comedic gold, biting social satire, clever parody, or thoughtful allegory, the Humor & Satire Awards provide the recognition and promotional platform your wit deserves.

Humor has the unique power to unite people across differences, challenge conventional wisdom, and make even the most serious topics approachable. From lighthearted tales that offer pure joy to satirical works that inspire social change, every skillfully crafted humorous work has the potential to become a reader’s go-to comfort read or their new favorite conversation starter. Don’t let your wit remain hidden in the shadows. Submit to the Humor & Satire Awards today and join the clever authors who’ve found their appreciative audience through Chanticleer!

Submit to the Humor & Satire Awards today! Deadline: October 31st

You know you want it…
October 13, 2025
BACK To BAINBRIDGE by Norah Lally – Middle Grade, Contemporary Fiction, Friendships & Family

Norah Lally’s upper middle grade novel Back to Bainbridge sees unstable family life through the eyes of thirteen-year-old Vicki Hanlon. The story opens as her single mother has just lost another boyfriend, and the family is being evicted from their house in upstate New York.

Vicki’s memories, recalled as the family travels on the interstate down to grandmother’s apartment in the Bronx, shows the tumultuousness of her young life so far. It has left her with a world view based on disappointments, leaving friends, and the absence of a secure home.

To say Vicki’s family is dysfunctional would be an understatement. She can predict her life circumstances based on her mother’s relationships with men: happy, bereft, flirty, angry. As the eldest child, she cares for her siblings when her mother can’t despite how young Vicki herself is. Judith, her younger sister, wears her scars in the form of mistrust and cynicism, while her ten-year-old brother Dylan still clings to his stuffed bear as a small piece of reliable comfort.

Vicki’s mother deems their stay at grandmother’s home temporary, but also realizes she needs to change her life for her children’s sake. She promises this new beginning will be good for them all. Vicki can’t believe her, but one minute after meeting her grandmother she realizes this no-nonsense woman means business, and they need her for their very survival.

Vicki wants a stable home life, but she wants friends and a sense of belonging even more.

That first night in her grandmother’s home, she hears the voice of an angel. She opens the window and meets Rosa, the daughter of the building’s superintendent. They form an instant bond, and Vicki has her first friend inher new neighborhood. Then she meets James, the skater-dude whose problematic parents abandoned him to live with his aunt in the same apartment building. His parents’ past unruly behavior has left a bad impression on the other tenants, an unfortunate reputation that sticks to James like stale perfume. No one trusts him, not even Rosa, but Vicki won’t let anyone tell her who she can and cannot be friends with. She immediately sees something she likes in James and gives him the benefit of the doubt.

Vicki even refuses to judge her cranky downstairs neighbor, Mrs. Kirby, based on other people’s opinions. Word on the block is that she’s an old witch, but Vicki embraces everyone—a trait that proves invaluable as her friendships begin to blossom and change her view on the world.

When the talented Rosa leaves for a cultural-artistic summer camp, she entrusts the keys to her secret hideout with Vicki so that she can feed the rescued cats living in the basement against building rules. Vicki agrees but she has an ulterior motive for wantingthe keys; the ability to gain access to the basement storage units, especially the one holding her mother’s magenta bag. She suspects her mother has been keeping secrets about her father, whom she dreams of reuniting with in California.

What Vicki discovers in her exploration of the storage units surprises her. She uncovers forgotten treasures that tell the stories of her neighbors’ hidden lives, and as Vicki learns more about the multi-dimensional humans whom she sees each day, she realizes that there is truly more to everyone than what meets the eye, and she has empathy for them all.

Through her experiences, Vicki comes to respect the people of Bainbridge Avenue, and she becomes a builder of bridges, not walls, until even her own mother opens up to her and they grow closer.

The changes that occur over the course of this novel in Vicki, her family, and her new friends on Bainbridge Avenue show us the power of respect and understanding to heal and create lasting bonds. Vicki embraces acceptance and forgiveness, even after she learns about family secrets that her mother and grandmother have tried to keep shrouded due to shame and fear of being judged. In the end, the family is able to support one another and look ahead to better days.

Lally writes lovingly with great respect for kids and their real-life challenges, and the diverse urban setting of the Bedford Park neighborhood in the Bronx (where Lally’s own grandmother lived) is brought to life in intimate and vibrant detail. But the greatest gift you will receive by going Back to Bainbridge with Vicki in this book is the simple but profound recognition that everyone is deserving of being seen for who they are, afforded the grace to stumble and get back up again, and having a place to call home where they can feel a sense of safety and belonging. This charming debut novel is must-read for kids and adults alike.

Back to Bainbridge by Norah Lally won Grand Prize in the 2024 CIBA Getrude Warner Awards for Middle Grade Fiction.

October 13, 2025
The 2025 Chatelaine Hall of Fame for Romance Fiction

Need some Love in your life?

The Chatelaine Awards are here to bring you the best in Romance Fiction.

**Send us your Story Today**

It is a truth Universally acknowledged that a Reader in search of a book, must be in want of a good Romance.

Other Divisions may have categories for Romantic themes, but if you want purely Romance, look no further! Historical to Modern, Steamy to Clean, even throw in some adventure, We’ve got it all!

Join us in celebrating These recent Grand Prize Winners of the Chatelaine Award!

The Key
By Jo Morgan Sloan

Our Review of the newest Grand Prize Winner is still upcoming. In the meantime, here is what some Goodreads readers have been saying:

“It’s an adorable read that had me feeling like this: 🥰🥰🥰 basically from the moment I read the dedication until I got to the end (though there were a couple dark moments), and I loved the queer rep, from the members of the DnD group to Tabby and Jax themselves.

I really liked that Tabby’s experience as a trans man was mostly positive. He’s happy with who he is and reading about his feelings brought me a lot of joy. His anxiety over whether or not to tell Jax the truth was so real, I felt it too. And the way Jax feels about his friendship with Tabby is so sweet… ahhhh! The writing just sucked me in and made it so easy to feel all the feels.

Tabby’s relationship with Rob, who is also a trans man, was very interesting. It made me consider some possible advantages and challenges in trans relationships that I never thought about before, and of course it’s great when books give us something new to think about.” – El

“Amazing. This book was described to me as “the gayest book I’ve ever read” and I could not agree more.
Right from the start, Sloan’s writing drew me in. With a surprising depth of maturity in their writing for a debut author I quickly found myself swept away.
Tabby and Jax stole my heart and keep my giggling and kicking my feet along the way.
A truly binge-worthy holiday romance.” -Mandie

“What happens when you and your first love separate on good terms due to distance and you take that chance to become the real version of yourself? And then what happens if years later you really get that second chance? The Key is a beautiful second chance, trans romance with a lot of nerdy flare. Jaxon and Tabby are beautifully complex and well-rounded characters who made me want nothing more than to see them get their happily ever after. The complexities of young love, the incredible vastness and scope of the trans journey and what it means to different people, being bisexual but straight passing, each character brings something new and unique and heart breaking to the story that just made the story that much more touching. Fun read, beautiful story.” -Samantha

Buy the Book!

A Sea of Glass
By Gail Avery Halverson

In this rich, absorbing tale, Gail Avery Halverson continues the remarkable saga of Lady Catherine Abbott and Simon McKensie that began with the multiple award-winning novels, The Boundary Stone and The Skeptical Physick. Sweeping us from a quaint village in England to Colonial Boston and to the beautiful evils of 17th century Barbados, Gail Avery Halverson has once again written a truly compelling and unforgettable novel.

After a heartbreaking tragedy, Catherine yearns for the safety and familiarity England, but when a free, black woman attempts to accomplish the unthinkable, Catherine is forced to decide where her future lies.

When a daring investment in the lucrative 17th century Barbados sugar trade takes a horrifying turn, Simon must at last set his dedication for medicine and scientific discovery aside and face the true ugliness of slavery.

Joining the multitude of courageous souls in the first waves of the Great Migration from England to America, Simon and Catherine McKensie lay witness to the forging of a new country, the first seeds of violent rebellion against the Crown, and the bitter tentacles of a slave trade just beginning to take root.

Read it here!

You can read the review for the previous book in the series, and our 2019 Grand Prize Winner here!

Operation Mom: My Plan to Get My Mom a Life and a Man
By Reenita Malhotra Hora

Master storyteller Reenita Malhotra Hora’s YA romance Operation Mom: My Plan to Get My Mom a Life and a Man takes us on a charming journey through the life of one teen, Ila Isham.

Hora introduces Ila and her best friend Deepali, two boy-crazy teens on a summer quest. Readers will fall in love with the smart, sassy, angst-filled, rebellious Ila. A typical teenage girl, Ila lives in Mumbai with her mom and Sakkubai, their house manager. Ila’s mother calls her obsessed, but that seems unfair. Is she obsessed just because her every waking minute is spent thinking of Ali Zafar, famous pop icon, singer, and heartthrob? Or is she obsessed with fellow classmate Dev?

No, Ila couldn’t be taken with Dev because he’s one of three young men that her best friend Deepali is juggling in her summer experiment of exploring her “feminine mystique.” This turn of phrase becomes just one of many opportunities for Hora’s humor to shine as Ila remarks, “That’s a book by Gloria Steinem . . . no Betty Friedan.” Deepali’s response? “Yaar. Don’t be so literal.” The delightful balance between Ila’s book smarts versus Deepali’s street smarts carries us through Hora’s expertly crafted story.

Read More Here

The Long Desert Road
By Alex Sirotkin

Alex Sirotkin’s debut novel, The Long Desert Road, navigates the emotional arcs of life in contrast with the greater expanse of the cosmos. Here a young woman must face her addictions while the people around her try to move beyond her backlash.

We meet Henry Spinoza, a 44-year-old quirky science writer. He ponders his life as half over, looks for the right woman, and wonders if there isn’t more to existence.

For twenty years, Henry, a science writer, has been researching a non-fiction book on the universe that he intends to write. Henry’s feeling “bored, boring, and budget-conscious…the trifecta of gloom,” as he puts it. But in the middle of this ennui, his sister-in-law invites him to dinner, along with her divorced friend, Isabel Dalton, an attorney, and “the setup is afoot.”

Read More Here

When The Wind Chimes
By Mary Ting

In When the Wind Chimes by international best-selling author Mary Ting, Kate Summers wants to make this Christmas extra-special for her older sister, Abby, and four-year-old nephew.

A year ago, she’d given up Christmas with her family to spend the holiday with her boyfriend, Jayden, whom she had caught cheating on her the next day. Not only is she hoping to erase that memory, but she also has another even more important reason to make this Christmas special. A few months after her disastrous break-up with Jayden, her brother-in-law, Steve, passed away from cancer, so Abby and Tyler will be spending their first Christmas alone.

After taking a leave from her job as a graphic designer in LA, Kate flies to Poipu, Kauai, determined to make this an amazing holiday, but on her way to her sister’s house, she meets a mysterious man, who gives up his cab for her. Kate can’t get the handsome stranger out of her head, and when she sees him again in her sister’s art gallery–and destroys his expensive shirt with paint–she is both mortified and excited.

Read More Here

Remember to add your next reads to your StoryGraph or Goodreads account! Now that you’re set on your next five reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Chatelaine Winners is to submit today!

Those who submit and advance will have the chance to win the Overall Grand Prize of the CIBAs and $1000!

October 10, 2025
The 2025 Fiction Cover Design Awards (CCDAs) Short List
The Chanticleer Cover Design Awards (The CCDAs) for Fiction recognizes artistic excellence across genre in great cover design. The CCDAs are a new Award Division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (The CIBAs).

Our design is inspired by books designed by the incomparable Coraline Bickford-Smith. Her simple, beautiful, and evocative designs do so much to make the book work as a visual ambassador, capturing the essence of story and compelling potential readers to pick it up, click on it, or share it with others. A well-designed cover signals professionalism, sets expectations for your genre, and serves as a powerful marketing tool to stand out in both digital and physical spaces.

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring clear genres, audience, time periods, typography, and longevity across genres of Historical Fiction, Romance, Literary, Satire, Speculative Fiction, and Youth Reads.

These titles have moved forward in the Long List of the 2025 CCDA Fiction entries to the 2025 CCDA Fiction SHORT LIST. These entries are now in competition for the 2025 CCDA Fiction Semi-Finalists. FINALISTS will be chosen from the Semi-Finalists and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference, CAC26.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 18th, 2026 in beautiful Bellingham, WA sponsored by the 2026 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SEMI-FINALISTS of the 2025 Chanticleer Cover Design Awards novel competition for Fiction Books!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works:
- AJ Humphreys – Trip a Psychological Horror Novel
- Andrew D.H. Moore – Children of Solo
- Anne Polli – Mason the Magnificent
- Catherine M Mathis – Ines the Queens of Portugal Trilogy
- Charlie Robinson Cover by Ruth Noble – Bow Tie Sex
- Christine Knapp – Murder on the Green
- Debbie Black Cover by Kelly Black – Deetjen’s Closet a Quest for Magic
- Deborah Swenson – Till My Last Day Book Two in the Desert Hills Trilogy
- Ellis K. Popa – Dawn To Dusk
- Erika Lynn Adams – Allie’s Adventure on the Wonder
- George Petersen – The Summer of Haight
- Glen Dahlgren – The Wrath of Order
- Gregg Brandalise – The Death of Us All
- JL Spears – Daemon Protocol
- Julie Lomax – A Pawn’s Game
- KD Straus – To Be True
- Leslie Liautaud- Butterfly Pinned
- Margaret Porter – Sequins and Starlight
- Maria Giuseppa – R&R a Feast of Words
- Mark A. Gibson – Roses in December
- McKinley Aspen – Cogitatio Shadows in the Wind Book Two
- Michael Bailey – Sweet Hunger
- Miki Taylor – Bentley Makes a Dump Cake
- Once Upon a Dance – A Tail of Twirls
- Richard G Nixon – The Legend of Fingerless Will Nixon the Scottish Borderlands 1508-1509
- Sarah V Barnes – She Who Rides Horses a Saga of the Ancient Steppe Book One
- Sarah V. Barnes – A Clan Chief’s Daughter
- Sean Hagerty – Cabal
- Sue C. Dugan – Forever Ever Always
- Susan Rogers – Warrior Pose
- Sydney Roubian – Scarecrow Finds a Heart
- Tamar Anolic – The Keepers
- Theresa Janson – Reservations a Samantha Wright Crime Series
- T.O. Paine – The Crisis
- Travis Davis – War on the Porch
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.

Please click here to visit our page to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE on Facebook.

We will also be promoting this list in our Newsletter, which you can sign up for here!

Congratulations to our very first Fiction Cover Design Grand Prize Winner!

Luna, Rhone & Stone Book Two

By Strider S.R. Klusman

Click here to see the rest of the 2024 Winners.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2026 Chanticleer Cover Design Awards for Fiction.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2025 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2026 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 17 – 19, 2026! Save the Date for Registration!

Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.

Join us for our annual conference as we enter our second decade and discover why!
October 9, 2025
Banned Books Week Celebrates Two Pillars of a Free Society: The Freedom of Expression and the Freedom to Read
The written word is one of the most powerful tools humans have ever created, and one of the most feared.

It unlocks our thoughts, letting us share ideas, stories, knowledge, and emotions across time and space. It’s a tool to give everyone an equal voice, challenge our thinking, and it helps us to better understand the world in which we live. Whether it’s a diary entry, a news article, or a powerful novel, writing connects us in ways that nothing else really can. That’s why protecting access to all kinds of writing, even what makes us uncomfortable, is so important.

Our forefathers knew the value of the freedom to express ourselves and the freedom to read.

They felt it was so essential to a democracy they made it the very first amendment to the US Constitution.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;
or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,
and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

– The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

The Fundamental Importance of Banned Book Week

Banned Books Week, held annually in late September or early October, honors and advocates for the freedom to read and express ourselves by drawing attention to banned and challenged books. Since 1982, this campaign has stressed “the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them.” It’s a movement dedicated to keeping material publicly available to everyone everywhere so people can develop their own conclusions and opinions through our own words.

The Top Ten Banned Books of 2025

During times when books are continually challenged for their content by people who want to silence others, reading banned books becomes even more important. According to PEN America, the 10 most challenged books of the 2024-2025 school year were:
1. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
2. Breathless by Jennifer Niven
3. Sold by Patricia McCormick
4. Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
5. A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
6. Crank by Ellen Hopkins
7. Forever… by Judy Blume
8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
9. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
10. All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
“To ban a book is to truncate the conversation about our shared humanity.”
– Julian Spencer

Banned Books Week Events

There are many ways you can help bring attention to and learn more about Banned Books with fun activities for both adults and children.
1. 1. Educate kids about what it means to ban or challenge a book
  2. Read and discuss banned picture books
  3. Form banned book clubs and share books about banned books
  4. Engage in some “freedom to read” activism
  5. Join a “Virtual Read-Out” online event
  6. Create a banned book display. The ALA has an inspiration gallery to get you started
  7. Take banned book photos at the library and post ‘mug shots’ showing who was caught reading a banned book
  8. Host a banned book “jailbreak” and deliver banned books in your school or neighborhood Free libraries
  9. Design posters, t-shirts, or break out a button-making machine and share popular banned book slogans (e.g., “fREADom!” “I’m With the Banned!”) from around the web or in your community
  10. Create a banned book trading card scavenger hunt for kids and challenge them to collect the most cards, fill in a bingo card, or trade cards with each other
Support for Banned Books

Banned Books Week is supported by a coalition of organizations dedicated to free expression, including American Booksellers for Free Expression, American Library Association, American Society of Journalists and Authors, Amnesty International USA, Association of University Presses, Authors Guild, Banned Books Week Sweden, Children’s Book Council, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), Freedom to Read Foundation, GLAAD, Index on Censorship, Little Free Library, National Book Foundation, National Coalition Against Censorship, National Council of Teachers of English, PEN America, People For the American Way Foundation, PFLAG, and Project Censored. Banned Books Week also receives generous support from Penguin Random House. Banned Books Week is ® American Library Association.
October 9, 2025